Ed Sheeran admits to special connection with Rihanna

Ed Sheeran revealed that Rihanna plays a huge role in his musical career.

The 34-year-old singer confessed that he wrote many of his songs with the Grammy winner on his mind, including the huge hit, Shape of You.

"Rihanna has the best taste out of anyone. She always picks just really, really great songs. So as songwriters within the songwriting community, you're always writing songs to pitch to Rihanna," the Photograph hitmaker told the host on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, on Wednesday, March 26th.

Sheeran went on to add, "Like every single album that I've ever done, I've always gone to write, on the side, 'Let's try and write a song that we can pitch to Rihanna.'" 

While Shape of You achieved chart-topping success, Sheeran admitted that the song "didn't really feel like it suited" him “because I very much wrote it with someone else in mind."

Fallon responded that the Diamonds singer is “like your muse” which Sheeran agreed with and added, "I promise you, there'll be so many songwriters out there [whose] best song came from trying to write a Rihanna song."

Sheeran also shared that Justin Bieber’s hit track, Love Yourself, which was written by him and Benny Blanco, was also one that he wrote as a Rihanna song.

Rihanna herself has been on a hiatus from music for eight years, but she teased that her ninth album is finally in the works this year.